Thanksgiving with Danny and Amanda

Uncle Danny. Jude was staring at him the whole week.

Luke was super excited about the fort Amanda and Danny bought him. He's still sleeping in it.

Thanksgiving feast.

Floooood

Where is Noah when you need him? I think that my family thought I was being dramatic when I talked to them on Wednesday but the flooding out here has been very bad and here is the proof.

The rain started coming down really hard on Wednesday which was Luke's first exciting day of preschool and it turned out to be such a bad day. It didn't ever let up. I decided to pick him up and leave the house about 50 minutes early but my neighbor came running out of her house and told me that she would take the babies since I had to get Luke. She was worried because another friend's husband had to abandon his car and wade through the water to her house to borrow a car to get his daughter from preschool. Basically it took me almost three hours to get to Luke which it would normally take 15 mins. I never made it there so one of Luke's friend's mom picked him up for me and met me. Most of the roads were blocked off and looked like rivers. Accidents everywhere, people running out of gas and leaving their cars behind, random people walking barefoot, elementary, ms and high school kids were ordered to stay out at the school until 6:30 pm, it was kind of scary.

I am the nervous nelly type of mom that hates to leave babies behind so I was pretty anxious the whole drive because I didn't even have bottles or diapers to leave with my friend. Anyway, we made it home and the basement was flooded but we are all safe and dry now and so many people had it a lot worse. So grateful for the friends that helped us out. It is still crazy out here and the rivers are still rising which is worrisome. All of these pictures are 1 to 10 minutes from our house.

The animal drowning picture is pretty sad. Two buffaloes drowned at the zoo. Luke cried when he heard about it.

SUMMER

Naughty naughty, Wyatt. Watch the hand gestures.

Sleeping at the beach

Wildwood, NJ

Trying to exercise on the trail. It is tricky to go running with 3 kiddos. 1 in the Bjorn and 2 in the stroller.

Duck pond

4th of July. Orchestra and ice cream in front of the hospital.

Mini golf on the 4th. Luke' got to choose the activity of the day.

Mt. Gretna Lake

Always a good way to end the summer... Dave's work party at the lake. The air is nice and cool, but the water is warm and you can't beat becoming bff's with a nice little Amish family of seven sitting right next to you. It only confirmed my belief of wanting to become Amish!

Please tell me that it is okay for kids to look like little orphan Annies all summer long.

Nobody ever has a matching outfit on, the babies live in onesies with the diaper ruffles always hanging out, Luke draws all over his face and I don't even notice, baths are not on a daily basis anymore, I have seen Jude eat a few dust balls and dried leaves from the floor and Luke came downstairs in boxers and a belly shirt the other day. When I told him to change he said that these were the only clean clothes that fit him.

I think that summers end will be a good thing for us. We apparently need some sort of routine.

An easier way to load the babes up and down the stairs.

I put the babies in the laundry basket one day and as I was taking this picture, Luke stormed up the stairs shouting "I have always wanted to do that and you never let me do anything fun like that!" Then he ran into my bedroom and slammed the door. The whole doorknob fell out and he was locked in the room for thirty minutes.

Oh the drama. All because of a laundry basket. Times like these make me think that I might not be cut out to be a mother to girls.

Jude steamrolling Wyatt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_TyRZVk_Is&feature=youtu.be

Jude is on the move...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxpWIcuwahM

Lately...

Boys can't get enough of their mobile.

Wyatt's thighs are extra round and it takes two people to get those things out of the Bumbo.

Jude loves to hold his little feet all day long.
One of the few minutes during the day that all three boys are calm at the same time is when we face them and read stories. Surprisingly the babies stay interested. Grandma Owen would be so proud!
Love you bro. Love you too, bro.
Trying to teach them how to hold their own. Jude is pretty good.

Two things usually happen when I have left the room for a few minutes...Jude is in a totally different spot (rolling all over the place these days) and Wyatt is covered in spit up. But they always seem to be happy.

Rub a dub dub three men in a tub. First bath together.

The twinners are now at the "station" stage. They go from one station to the next...excersaucer to floor to Bumbo to Johnny jump up, to crib etc.

The story behind the back surgery-for Jaimi and Kelly

Nothing too exciting but Dave had back surgery the Friday before Memorial Day. He came home about 2 weeks before that and said that his back sort of hurt. He hadn't done anything in particular and it was nothing too interesting since he has a sensitive back and had surgery on it in high school. Everyday back kept getting worse and worse until the last week he couldn't even move and had to crawl up the stairs. That was when we were really depressed thinking he wouldn't be able to work again. Poor Dave went to work one day and had to lean against a wheelchair and push it from room to room. If my doctor came into my room looking like that I would have been a tad nervous.

Anyway, he had an MRI and he had some bulged discs and a bone spur poking into the nerve. Sort of the same thing as before. He decided to get surgery a couple of days after the MRI. Luckily he knew the neurosurgeon and got in quickly. When I met him in the recovery room I could tell that he was feeling a ton better because he could sit with his legs straight out. So it has been about a month now and he can hold the babies (one at a time) and mow the lawn again. Yay. My back is so happy and maybe now the neighbors won't think that I have a worthless husband who sits in the car while I make 3 trips loading everyone and everything into the car. So now his back is much better, we will always need movers, and Dave can't play sports like he used too. The end.

4 Months

Wyatt...

~weighs more than Jude for the first time!
~does not like to be rocked to sleep. I set him in his crib and both fists immediately cover his eyes and he is out.
~doesn't cry when he wakes up. He will sing to himself and watch his hands move around
~is usually sweet and happy
~does not like being on his tummy
~hence, back of head is flat
~still spits up a lot
~kicks like crazy in the bath
~rarely cries these days
~loves to stick out the very tip of his tongue
~likes to stare at people more than toys
~I will look over at him and his whole face from eyebrows to chin is covered in spit up and he will just sit there smiling!
~4 month old Wy=sweetness

weight=15 lbs 9 1/2 oz (58%)
length=25 3/4 (79%)
head=41.5 cm (27%)


Jude...

~loving the baby toys. We can't leave home without one for him
~head is perfectly round
~eyes are still blue and hair is lookking lighter and lighter
~loudest babbler i have ever heard
~rolling all over the place.
~loves being on his tummy playing with toys
~shoves his whole fist in his mouth
~first tooth!!! bottom left one
~kicks like crazy in his bouncy seat
~has a really large mouth
~it is very easy to get him to smile
~loves to grab both feet and try to stick them in his mouth
~Jude at 4 months=fun personality

weight 14 lbs 14 oz (50%)
length 25 3/4 (79%)
head 41.4 cm (25%)

For my own records-
Boys take 2-3 shorter naps every day and a longer one at about 6:30 until we wake them for a last feeding at 10:30/11 and then they wake up at 5 or 6 am. Much better sleepers than Luke was.

The Twins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4xA1QcgXLM